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Andy Rooney, longtime commentator for 60 Minutes, nearly made it so. He died Friday after an operation for an unspecified illness; he had left his job buttoning up every 60 Minutes broadcast with a tart commentary on Oct. 1 -- little more than a month before his death.

Much as I admire what he and comtemporares like Mike Wallace achieved, I wonder if there isn't another lesson in the way these guys worked until there was little left of them. Maybe they're an example in ways they didn't intend.